City planners OK bank, duplex projects

BANGOR – The city’s planning board this week approved plans for a bank and coffee shop on Broadway and duplexes on Mount Hope Avenue.

Board members, however, opted not to recommend that the City Council approve a zone change for land at the end of Harvard Street.

During their meeting Tuesday night at City Hall, planning board members granted site development plan approval and conditional use approval to Bangor Savings Bank, which plans to construct a one-story 4,450-square-foot building at 652 Broadway.

The building would house a bank branch and a yet-to-be named national coffee chain. The two businesses will offer drive-though window service.

Bangor Savings Bank senior vice president Yellow Light Breen said the bank is excited about leasing part of the building to a “major coffeehouse,” but no lease has been signed.

He said he hopes the bank and its tenant will be open by Jan. 1. Formerly the home of a Friendly’s Restaurant, the 14.5-acre bank site is located on the west side of Broadway, between Dairy Queen and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Plans approved by the city call for four canopy-covered drive-through lanes, one for the coffee shop and the others for the bank. The bank’s teller windows will be under a canopy, but the coffee shop’s lane will continue around the back to its window on the south side of the building. The traffic circulation pattern will be one-way.

As part of the project, Bangor Savings must remove the existing northerly access and widen the access opposite Broadway Shopping Center to one entrance and two exit lanes.

The duplex project is slated for a 13.85-acre site on Mount Hope Avenue, across from the Rolling Meadows subdivision.

Developer Meadowbrook Ridge LLC received developmental subdivision approval for a complex that would consist of 24 two-unit residential buildings.

The rezoning request that the board declined to support called changing the zoning designation of a 5.5-acre parcel off Harvard and Dartmouth streets from commercial and service to high-density residential.

The parcel at issue does not have frontage on an existing city street but could be accessed if Harvard Street were extended.

Though planning staff supported the zone change, the board voted 5-0 not to recommend. It came after several neighboring property owners raised concerns about traffic and other quality of life issues, according to Planning Officer David Gould.

As a result, the request will move on to the City Council without an ought-to-pass recommendation from the planning board.